Call of Duty: Modern Warfare player uses spectator glitch to explore battle royale map

A Call of Duty: Modern Warfare player has used a spectator glitch to explore the game's battle royale map.

Redditor KingBeezoR used the glitch, which is triggered within a private game with free spectating and the spawn camera enabled, to free roam high above the recently-added Vacant map.

Vacant is a fan-favourite map that first appeared in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. What's interesting about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare version of Vacant is it's set within the Massive Ground War map, Port of Verdansk - and it's this feature that means you can use it to explore the upcoming - but so far unannounced - battle royale map.

There's a huge amount of virtual real-estate available to explore outside the bounds of Vacant itself, and you can clearly see other map settings. Also viewable is the Gulag, a 1v1 prison camp that gives battle royale players a chance to get back into the fight. (Much of the potential Modern Warfare battle royale feature set was unearthed by a prolific Call of Duty dataminer who goes by Senescallo on Reddit.) KingBeezoR is able to actually explore the Gulag, moving through tunnels, alleyways, corridors and out into the central area.

So, what's going on here? Why would a small Call of Duty: Modern Warfare map include so much detail outside its normal boundaries? A clue may be found in the structure of Modern Warfare's various multiplayer modes. According to a leak of the battle royale map, it connects the Spec Ops and Ground War maps to make for an enormous play area supposedly big enough to house 200 players. And, it looks like when you're playing Spec Ops and Ground War, you're actually playing a closed off area of the battle royale map. In this way, players have been playing the Modern Warfare battle royale map without knowing it all along.

There's more evidence to support this theory. 12 days ago a Redditor who goes by the username Nateberg3 published a video showing what looks like the entire battle royale map using what looks like the same spectator glitch on the Operation Strongbox Spec Ops map. Comparing this video with the leaked battle royale map, you can see landmarks exactly where they should be.

So, the question is, when will Activision turn Modern Warfare's battle royale on? With players already exploring its innards, it doesn't feel far off.